Simeon Den Gallery/Fine & Temple Arts

Max hates swimming. #pugs #pugsofinstagram #palmsprings #coachella #palmspringslife #swimming @simeonden

My Daily Haiku for the Old Year: - - Like a Winter chill Age came to steal my Youth. ‘Fuck you, Age!’ I win! @simeonden @sdengallery #haiku #poetry #poetrycommunity #butoh #dance #photooftheday #photography #dancer #palmsprings #coachella #spokenword

Part DeuxFor some context, I was infinitesimally more humbled to meet Martha Graham when I met her, than when I met Stephen Sondheim on that first day of rehearsal. On that first day, in the darkened hallway of the rehearsal studio on W 17th Street, I actually mistook him for the janitor! But I digress. On that evening at Stephen Sondheim’s Turtle Bay townhouse at twilight, cocktail hour in Manhattan, I stood at the third floor window of Stephen Sondheim’s antique games ...room, peering down at the meticulously manicured garden paths, in the center of New York City, and in the waning light of the day, I caught a glimpse of Katherine (fucking) Hepburn pensively strolling through the pathways and trellises of roses outside Stephen Sondheim’s townhouse at Turtle Bay in Manhattan ....in chiaroscuro. Drawing: pencil on rice paper, Version of Leaping Into the Abyss by Sensei @jonhamblin #memoir #memories #stories #newyork #newyorkstories #chorusboy #autobiography #dancer #1970s @stephen_sondheim

from The I Remember Files- - Merely a BWAy chorus boy, I never ever characterized myself as merely. As an original cast member (albeit of the chorus) of Pacific Overtures, I was once invited to Stephen Sondheim’s home in Turtle Bay, the fabled eastside NYC neighborhood. Stephen Sondheim (I feel compelled to call him by both names because addressing him solely as Sondheim seems too impersonal and calling him Stephen seems more personal than appropr...iate) has a rare collection of antique game toys housed in a room on the third floor of his townhouse. As an appropriately curious party guest, I came upon it quite innocently as I respectfully wandered about. After I viewed the impressive collection, I found myself standing at the window facing the back of the building that faces the backside of the other houses on his block. I peered down into the gardens that seemed to be private pathways shared in common by his neighbors. All the townhouses backsides faced each other as though the back of the properties were shared gardens. That was my perception at the time but in retrospect, it seems highly unlikely that everyone of Stephen Sondheim’s neighbors had access to each other’s backyard garden. New Yorkers, by definition, are guarded. Although confined to relatively compressed living spaces, New Yorkers rejoice in defining and defending the boundaries of private personal spaces with spoken and unspoken rules of non-engagement. But I digress. I did not grow up as one of those theater kids who always dreamed about being on Broadway. Never saw a book show until I was 18, when I saw a touring company of Man of La Mancha in Honolulu and did not start dance training until after college when I was 21, after which I trained as a concert dancer; not a commercial dancer but a professional concert dancer trained in Modern Dance & classical ballet in New York City. My mentors considered BWAy dance as a step down from concert dance. To be continued... @simeonden See more

My Daily Haiku- - It steals it’s way in. Pain as the Dark Companion Comes uninvited. #haiku #poetry #poetryofinstagram #dailyhaiku #dailyart #meditation #transcendental #desertlife #aginggracefully #francisbacon @simeonden @sdengallery #pain